Round

Monday, 21st April 2003

Train wheels must get even rounder.

I am not talking about the roundness in the direction of driving. This mind bubble has nothing to do with worn out wheels. So what am I talking about. You can't get rounder than round, can you? Yes, I hear your comments.

My idea is about a rounding that is 90 degrees on the forward motion. Odd? Yes, probably, but most new ideas are. They deviate from the known. That is what makes new ideas new.

Train passengers rock sideways, not back and forth. The constant forward speed is fine. It is the wheels bumping between the rails. That is what rocks the passengers. A train on rails is like a bumper car in a narrow corridor. It continues to bump against the walls.

A small experiment easily demonstrates this sideways bumping:

  1. Hang an object on a string in the train.
  2. Make sure it does not move.
  3. Look in which directing it starts swinging.
I've repeated this experiment several times. The result was the same every time:
A series of shocks causes a sideways swing.

What to do about it?

Round wheels

No, the solution is simpler: round the wheel surface!
Trainwheels with a round, hollow surface
Round the wheel surface.
The wheels can wiggle a little bit on the rails, to compensate for small sideways shocks. Gravity makes sure that each wheel will re-find the centre fast.

A safety precaution at the inside of the wheel makes sure that the train does not derail, comparable with current train wheels.

The passengers

Round up the train wheels!

Till next nut.
Nut
IM Tedd Codd, 1923 - 18 apr 2003